Fiction 3 best-sellers 2010 3 the highlight 2010 4 literary fiction / master’s writing 13 non-francophone authors 26 debut novel 27 new contemporary trends 35
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- Greggio, Simonetta: Dolce Vita
- Bertholon, Delphine: L Effet Larsen
- Charpentier, Laure: GIGOLA
- Michaux, Agnes: Les Sentiments
- Le Callet, Blandine: La Ballade de Lila K
- Gentil, Mano: Dans la tête des autres
- Caffin, Vanessa: MEMOIRE VIVE
- Slanka, Cécile: DIALOGUES IN UTERO
- Abécassis, Agnès: SOIRÉE SUSHI
- Zeniter, Alice: JUSQUE DANS NOS BRAS
WOMEN WRITINGAbécassis, Eliette: UNE AFFAIRE CONJUGALE(Albin Michel, August 2010, 324 pages) Eight years of marriage. Two children. The erosion of time, boredom and resentment replaced the euphoria of young love. Agathe can see they are no longer a couple. The only way out: divorce. Like a declaration of war… Agathe discovers that the man she has worshipped is in fact a sadistic manipulator, who has been living off her, has been cheating on her under her own roof and has been undermining her self-esteem. As she puts it, “To do things properly, we should start with the divorce. Then get married afterwards. I used to think I knew my husband … But I only discovered the truth about him during the year we divorced, when I learned much more than in our ten years of life together.” Full of hatred, Agathe will only have her own resources to fight to keep her children. A recent revelation of the literary world, Eliette Abécassis studied philosophy and wrote numerous succesful novels including the recent novel MERE ET FILLE, UN ROMAN, but also “mystical thrillers” QUUMRAM and LE TRESOR DU TEMPLE, which sold over 100 000 copies each, and intimate lieracy novels LA REPUDIEE, MON PERE, and CLANDESTIN (nominated for the Prix Goncourt in 2003). Her works has been translated into10 languages.
“Vous ne lâcherez pas cette nouvelle «Guerre des Roses» où les mille enjeux – argent, garde des enfants... – précipitent le désenchantement. Palpitant, grinçant, acide. Pour se prémunir de l'enfer post-conjugal.” Marie Claire “Non sans humour et ironie… Eliette Abécassis livre une réflexion personnelle à la fois crue et profonde qui balaiera tout résidu du mythe du prince charmant.” Le Figaro Magazine “Eliette Abécassis parle de ses inquiétudes et se dévoile au lecteur. Elle se montre sensible, fragile, se met à nu. Ce très bel ouvrage sur la déliquescence d’un couple se lit comme un roman à suspense. Un roman bien ancré dans le XXIe siècle, où les téléphones portables, les mails et même Facebook viennent en aide aux femmes blessées qui cherchent la vérité où elles peuvent la trouver.” Page Greggio, Simonetta: Dolce Vita(Stock, 1959-1979, October 2010 416 pages) 2010. Prince Malo confides in the priest Saverio. He knows his life is coming to an end and confesses his loose life - the decadent lifestyle of an aristocrat - and the highly political secrets he had never revealed until now. He is one of the last to witness the most glamorous and the darkest years of Italy. Why and how the country we have loved so much could succumb to the Red terror after experiencing the Black one' Written like a movie scenario with flashback and sequence shots, this investigative book Dolce Vita tells us the story of Italy between 1959 and 1979. Loose morals, financial scandals, the Red Brigades, Moro's kidnapping and murder, the death of the director and poet Pasolini, the Cosa Nostra, the Vatican ... The author refers to all the major affairs that took place in Italy for twenty years. As the reader progresses into the novel, a trail of blood appears little by little between the Vatican, the Masonic Lodge shifting P2 and Mafia. Meanwhile a powerful America is entering the scene, helping Italy towards freedom, while discretely enslaving it. The novel Dolce Vita draws the fascinating portrait of this extremely romantic European country, and enlightens about the Italy of today, the Italy ruled by a tragicomic Berlusconi. This story told by the last Leopard, gives a bittersweet taste and a poisonous charm to an infinite end-of-reign. This is an exciting and passionate book that allows the reader to understand that Italy and the Italy of the Berlusconi era. Simonetta Greggio is an Italian novelist who writes in French. She has worked as a journalist for many years, including at Le Figaro, La Republica and Telerama. She is the author of three novels, published by Stock: La dauceur des hOmmes (2005), Col de l’Ange (2007) and Les mains nues (2009).
A very touching portrait of a young woman, forced to grow up too fast, but also a profound reflection on grief, memory and guilt. For more than a decade, Nola has been living with a shadow, a part of her that up to now she has been able to avoid. But, at age thirty, the time has come to face her ghost. She rewinds her life back to the summer that left the most endurable impression on her existence. In August 1998, the heat is sweltering in a deserted Paris. Nola, 18, has just lost her father and has to manage her mother's grief and her own anger. Forced to move into a "mutant building", the architectural reflection of their disassembled lives, the two women try to rebuild themselves. And yet, as soon as they step foot in their new apartment, Nola's mother, Mira, begins to feel the strangest symptoms. She becomes intolerant to the slightest noise, paper being crumpled sounds like an explosion, a dripping faucet sends her into hysterics. Nola is a helpless witness to her mother's mental breakdown. With the hope of relieving Mira of the infinitely heavy burden she seems to carry, Nola begins an unusual investigation into her family's history. Delphine Bertholon was born in Lyon in 1976. She is a novelist and screenwriter. After Cabine Commune and Twist, both published by Lattt:~s, L 'EfJet Larsen is her third novel. “A novel full of Love with a capital L. Bravo !” Version Femina “One of the master-strokes of the Fall literary harvest.” Le Parisien Charpentier, Laure: GIGOLA(Fayard, September 2010, 240 pages) Gigola is the short and sweet story of an adventurous young woman who can only express her “virility” with other women, women she not only wants to seduce and dominate but –like the bitterest of pims and the mostdubious of gigolos- to exploit. Gigola is a creature of the night. She wears a tuxedo, deals with procurers and is kept by rich women and prostitutes. Money and alcohol flow like water. Until one day, she meets the distant and sulfurous Alice, who resists her only to better dominate her, marking the beginning of her tragic declin. Laure Charpentier has never hidden her resemblance with her heroine, even if she trembles today for the reckless young woman of the 60’s, the young girl from a good family who would become one of the most fascinating icons of Pigalle nightlife. The author has justcopleted the film adaptation of her novel. The film, with Lou Doillon, Marie Kremer, Eduardo Noriega and Rossy de Palma, is scheduled for release in France in 2010. Laure Charpentier Is the author of over 15 novels and bestselling accounts on alcoholism and women including TOUTE HONTE BUE, and J’AI SOIF (1996). She divides her time between writing and film production.
On 8 September 1960, a new film directed by George Cukor, Let's Make Love, made its debut on US wide screens. Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand played the starring roles. But even more than the film itself, what kept the public in thrall was the love story said to have unfolded between the two actors. In the United States, newspaper headlines dubbed this to be the film "whose title Marilyn Monroe and Yves Montand took too seriously" ... This novel retraces the love story between the world's most beautiful woman and the Frenchman with the golden touch, exploring its intimacy, desires and sufferings. A now legendary love story that began behind the doors of the Beverly Hills Hotel and the most glamorous homes in Los Angeles, that was still alive in the heat of the desert on the set of The Misfits, and that would only truly reach its conclusion when the world's best-known blonde died. The love-struck Marilyn attempted everything within her power but Montand refused to leave Simone Signoret. One day in June 1960 he boarded a plane for France, towards the life he had chosen. But nothing would ever be the same again. Marilyn played out, during the shooting of The Misfits, the final stage in the slow disintegration of her marriage with Arthur Miller. As for Simone Signoret, something inside her would be forever broken. Agnes Michaux was a journalist for Canal+ for almost ten years. She has written and produced two documentaries - A la recherche de Stanley Kubrick and Sur les traces de Terrence Malick - as well as an evening dedicated to Roman Polanski. She is the author of two books published by Flammarion: Zelda (2006; rights sold in Greece) and Le Temoin (2009).
The Ballade de Lila K is primarily a voice: the voice of a sensitive yet caustic, fragile yet willful young woman telling her story from the day when a team of men dressed in black brutally snatched her from her mother, and took her to a Center (half boarding school, half prison) where she was held. Gifted, asocial and traumatised, Lila has forgotten everything of her former life. She has just one obsession: finding her mother and recapturing her lost memories. So begins her chaotic apprenticeship in a peculiarly off-kilter world where her safety now seems guaranteed but where books are no longer allowed. During an enquiry that takes her beyond the bounds of what is legal, Lila gradually uncovers her past and finally learns what happened to her mother. Her trajectory brings her into contact with many characters, including an erudite and provocative schoolmaster, an educator who is as conventional as he is devoted, a depressive cellist longing for a child, a vicious concierge, a disfigured young man, a mysterious bibliophile, a multicoloured cat. .. A rites of passage book in which suspense mingles with a disturbing love story, The Ballad of Lila K also explores the question of how our society is evolving and what may come of it. Blandine Le Callet was born in 1969. She is a senior lecturer at the Paris-XII university and carries out research in ancient philosophy and Latin literature, on monsters in ancient Rome (her essay, Rome et ses manstres, was published in 2005 by Editions J. Millon). She lives near Paris. Her first novel, Une piece montee, enjoyed great critical and popular acclaim in 2006 and was awarded the Prix des lecteu rs d u Livre de poche in 200llt was adapted to the big screen in March 2010: Piece montee. Rights sold to: Germany (Ullstein), Greece (Polis) Under option in: Czech Republic, Estonia, Korea, Serbia, Spain, Poland, Taiwan, Turkey Gentil, Mano: Dans la tête des autres(Calmann-Levy, August 2010, 192 pages) He turns off his television, an unsteady slip of paper in hand. A few numbers have just changed the course of his life. Serge, our fourtunate (or?) Lotto winner, has thus far led a very ordinary life divided between his anxious and obsessive blind mother, Genevieve, and his co-workers at the factory. Yet the people Serge thinks he knows best – Fat Gérarld, the loudmouthed factory worker who leads a surprising double life at home, lovely Laetitia, the ingenious nurse of an eventful past, zealous Eugenia, the caregiver obsessed with her petit-bourgeois daughter, Severine, who has renounced her great love – suddenly appear in a new light when fortune comes knocking at his door. All because of a simple Lotto grid... In this novel of intersecting destinies, a host of “ordinary” characters – neighbors, friends, people like you and me – reveal broken dreams, deep secrets and the infinite complexity of life. Who hasn't dreamed of knowing what other people are really thinking? Former communications manager, company president and journalist, Mano Gentil has devoted herself entirely to writing since 2001.The author of some fifteen novels and short stories, she also regularly holds writing workshops to share her love of words.
Sara is a thirty-something journalist. She lives alone and has few friends except for Charles, her best friend, and Clarence, her colleague. Her parents are divorced and her relationship with her stepmother is verystrained. The one constant in her lif is her paternal grandmother, Minouche, whom she loves. The revelation by Minouche that her son was fathered by her lover sets in motion a series of events that will deeply affect Sara… The touching portrayal of a young woman’s descent into madness. Vanessa Caffin is a Paris-based journalist who divides her time between writing and screenwriting. Her first novel, j’aime pas l’amour…ou trop peut-etre was published by Anne Carrière in 2008 and got warm reception. “A subtle comedy with zesty dialogues, this novel explores delicately the opacities of the human soul faced with death, solitude, doubt and irrationality.” L’écho Républicain “De très beaux passages sur la solitude, sur l’affection et sur le monde médical.” L’Echo de l’Ouest “Facile à lire, l’histoire vous prend et ne vous lâche pas.” Femme actuelle “Ce roman se dévore avec avidité. La plume acéré de Vanessa Caffin nous renverse, pour notre pkus grand plaisir.” Abride abattue (blog) Slanka, Cécile: DIALOGUES IN UTERO(Liana Lévi, to be published in October 2010, approx. 150 pages) Sidonie and Ferdinand have known each other for a long time. When they fall in love, they decide to make the first move by stopping all forms of contraception. Given their age, the years spent taking the pill, drinking, smoking,their generation’s infertility, stress, and pollution, their kid Gütchlück should make an appearance after several long months of diligent sexual activity –a prospect not without its attractions. But then, after just one week, Sidonie gets pregnant. Sidonie and Fardinand then have to face the opinions, advice, and criticisms of those around them, as well as their own self-questioning as future parents. Between friends, family, doctors, girlfriends, workmates, shrinks, passers-by, and everyone else who wants to add their two cents, Sidonie’s pregnancy, although completely without complications, is quickly transformed into a battle against prenatal paranoia. As caustic, funny, and offbeat as the author’s previous book, comment lui dire adieu, sold in Germany, Spain, Italy, Korea and Finland. A post-graduate in literature (specialized in ‘French usage in the public sphere of the 17th century’), Cécile Slanka changed fields in 2001 when she joined Unifrance, an organisation that promotes French cinema through out the world, and became the director of multi-media projects. Abécassis, Agnès: SOIRÉE SUSHI(Calmann-Lévy, March 2010, 220 pages) When it rains it pours. Yet know two breakups are ever the same. Thus do Rebecca and a group of recently divorced, separated, dumped and free-at-last girlfriends conclude during an evening get together. They meet at Hortense’s for a night on the town but when Hortense receives a mysterious text from her teenage son saying he’ll be home late, they decide to stay put and order in sushi while waiting for her missing son to reappear. Follows an evening serving up a full platter of shared experiences, from the art of immediately recognizing “Mr. Wrong” to the troubles of raising teenage children. “One day you're changing their diapers. The next they're making you a macaroni necklace. The day after they're already stealing your car.” In other words, the days are long but the years are short! The party continues, one comical anecdote after another, in an atmosphere of laughter and fellowship. But it’s getting later and later and still no sign of Hortense’s son Fergus - “Could he have gotten lost in cyberspace while playing a video game? Or be bedridden with a critical case of acne?' - they begin to seriously worry. Because wild single mothers though they are, they are first and foremost mothers! Agnès Abécassis lives and works in Paris. She is a writer, screenwriter, illustrator and novelist. Her works include Les tribulations d'une jeune divorcée (best-selling satire of life after divorce, over 100,000 volumes sold), Au secours, il veut m'épouser!, Toubib or not toubib, Chouette, une ride! and the comic strip (texts and drawings) Les carnets d'Agnès (2009), the lively account of the preoccupations of a working mother. Zeniter, Alice: JUSQUE DANS NOS BRAS(Albin Michel, March 2010, 220 pages) Today, Alice is marrying Mad. Mad is from Mali. Alice is half Kabyle, half Norman. They have been the best friends in the world since childhood, they shared the same sandbox, the same junior high and the same high school; they got enthusiastic, engaged and revolted, they grew up together, against all opposition. Today, Alice is marrying Mad. But their marriage is one of convenience. Because it is the only thing Alice can do to save her friend, because it will be the touchstone of her engagement, the final point of her adolescence. With a young and fresh but certainly not vapid writing, Alice Zeniter plunges into the memories of childhood, which build one as an adult facing choices. A tale – because there’s hope in this short story- about friendship, love, roots and integration. Alice Zeniter, 22, has published her first novel, deux moins un égal zéro (Éditions du Petit Véhicule), at the age of 16. She graduated from the famous École Normale Supérieure, has teached in Hungary and often works with the theatre company Pandora. “Un état des lieux d’une lucidité plutôt abrupte dans un livre malgré tout irrigué de sève et d’une esprit de révolte neuf.” Livres Hebdo “Une cuisine délicieusement amère… Bien peu d’écrivains savent comme celle-ci jouer avec le sens des sens.” Le Monde “Les méandres d’une passion amoureuse, extrême, absolue. Étonnant.” Le Figaro Magazine “jusque dans nos bras est ainsi une histoire de la France récente, d’un point de vue ado et dessalé, drôle et anti-identitaire.”Libération Download 0.53 Mb. Share with your friends:
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